Accession Number
1948/1.53

Title
Woman Washing

Artist(s)
Jean Charlot

Artist Nationality
French (culture or style)

Object Creation Date
1933

Medium & Support
lithograph on paper

Dimensions
18 5/8 in x 13 3/4 in (47.3 cm x 34.9 cm)

Credit Line
Museum Purchase

Subject matter
Jean Charlot was born in France, but at a young age moved to Mexico and later to New York. He quickly fell in with some of the most important Mexican Muralists of the 1920s and 30s such as Diego Rivera. Charlot's work often depicted religious scenes or scenes of everyday Mexican life, such as seen here. This work represents a subject, the washing woman, he first explored for a fresco in Mexico City in the mid-1920s. The figure in this work is characteristic of Charlot's style, showing a rounded, full, and somewhat sculptural village woman, meant to reference indigenous Mexican women.

Physical Description
This work is a black and white lithograph. Central to the image is a woman who is crouching and bent over towards the right. She holds a paddle in her left hand and fabric in her right which fans out before her as she washes it. There is a dark sketchy area behind the woman. Her hair is dark and in two braids which drape back over her shoulders. She appears to be nude.

Primary Object Classification
Print

Collection Area
Modern and Contemporary

Rights
If you are interested in using an image for a publication, please visit http://umma.umich.edu/request-image for more information and to fill out the online Image Rights and Reproductions Request Form.

Keywords
Figures
Mexican Muralist (movement)
laundry
modern and contemporary art
nudes (representations)
seated
washing (cleaning)
water
woman
women (female humans)